As the book progresses, Kimmerer evokes historical patterns to explicitly critique the systems of power that have established the current economic consensus in the Western world, underscoring her larger exploration of The Tension Between Cutthroat Capitalism and Communal Reciprocity. For Kimmerer, this critique begins with the colonial era. Rather than dwell on the brutality of colonizers against Indigenous communities in the past, she frames colonialism as directly responsible for the way a capitalist economic model replaced Indigenous alternatives (gift economies). Her argument illustrates that while gift economies are perceived as novel and radical now, they’ve actually been utilized for millennia in the Americas. The colonial erasure of past alternatives overtly benefits modern extractive capitalism—a system that exploits its own workers, their communities, and the natural resources of the planet for profit. The erasure of gift economies establishes modern capitalism in the minds of the public as the only true model, while older rivals to this system are deliberately cast aside or crushed. Kimmerer links colonialism and capitalism as part of the same corrosive system of economic alienation. Undoing the effects of colonialism necessarily involves offering alternatives to capitalism such as gift economies based on Indigenous precedents.

In her advocacy for gift economies, Kimmerer evokes the language of modern philosophy and political science to voice her criticisms of capitalism. In Chapter 3, she frames the gift economies of the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest (which were banned by colonial governments) as the “ritualized redistribution of wealth” (36). Kimmerer uses the language of wealth redistribution, which fits into a more socialist mode of thought, and modern anti-capitalist movements to advocate for Indigenous economic models, underscoring her emphasis on The Natural World as Inspiration for Economic Reform. From the Indigenous gift economies that were banned by the colonialists and early capitalists, to the language of socialist wealth redistribution that arrived centuries later, Kimmerer positions her own arguments within a legacy of communal advocacy and capitalist critique. By drawing these comparisons, Kimmerer normalizes capitalist critique in a society governed by its principles.

While capitalism is the dominant social model in the Western world, Kimmerer demonstrates the prevalence of alternative economic models through a range of examples that evidence her thematic interest in Optimism as a Tool for Building a Better World. Gift economies are everywhere, she suggests, for those with eyes to see them. From open-source software to social media explainer videos, Kimmerer attempts to cast new light on the familiar by highlighting these smaller-scale gift economies as present in many people’s everyday lives even if most don’t typically view them in the context of alternatives to capitalism. Kimmerer uses the commonality of such informal gift economies to build trust in economic alternatives. Whether linking her theories to the past, modernizing the language of her critiques, or pointing out the prevalence of economic alternatives in the modern world, Kimmerer encourages her readers to understand extractive capitalism as only one economic model, not the best or only option.